My Hawaii

Aloha!

Welcome to Saturday in

W A I K I K I

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A Beautiful, Unsuspecting Beach Day.

See the girls taking a surfing lesson?

"Surfing expresses ... a pure yearning for visceral, physical contact with the natural world."
MATT WARSHAW

Innocent Looking Sky with Fluffy, Naive Clouds

"Any artist should be grateful for a naive grace

which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately."

Saul Bellow

"Cynicism is full of naive disappointments."

Mason Cooley

Thursday was the anniversary of the Hiroshima nuclear bombing.

The Shinto shrine above hosted a little league team from Japan, as well as other Japanese visitors and local residents, for the ringing of a "Peace Bell" gifted from the people of Hiroshima to her sister city of Honolulu. The bell has a long, resonant tone that seems to linger. . .

Well, hurricane Felicia seems to be weakening in the cooler waters she is crossing to approach our islands. Due to favorable Trade Wind conditions, hurricanes rarely strike Hawaii - but they DO strike.

Spetember 11th is the anniversary of Hurricane Iniki that seemed headed directly for Waikiki, but then spun off and struck the isle of Kauai causing much damage and trauma to the land, people, infrastructure, and economy of the "Garden Isle."

We had moved ourselves and all our worldly goods onto the boat a few short days before Iniki - just my luck - and so had an exciting time as the sky grew biblical and the wind made howling, shrieking sounds that I will never forget (and never care to hear again).

Fish swam in flooded streets, sea water surged over the harbor moles, and the palms waved frantically sideways, bowing in abject submission before wind-as-conqueror. Kitty hid below decks, and we fool humans stood by with sharp knives to cut away our lines if the floating dock broke free.

I had an image in my mind of our boat laying on it's side, in the middle of a road, a mile inland with all of my possessions strewn everywhere.

That was close enough for me.

So it is with much relief that I peruse the weather radar (meteorology was my college lab science) and see the predicted weakening of this dangerous category 4 hurricane as it continues to approach our neighborhood of the Pacific.

(Newsflash: it is now a cat 3)

Though it promises to be a tropical storm or depression as it comes ashore on the Big Island (Hawaii) on Sunday, it is still expected to bring torrential rains throughout the isles - including here on Oahu. Flood preparations are underway, and prudent home owners are stocking up on necessities. It is very pleasant to think of my boat/home merely raising with the tide - less so to reflect on the homeless local families who reside in tents on the beach.

Yes, there are homeless Hawaiians in Hawaii.

Monday and Tuesday should be exciting days of wind and rain - but no hurricane.

"Whew!"

If you continue below, you will find a video of one of my favorite songs, always guaranteed to make me cry as it celebrates places and things dear to my heart.

I hope it brings a tear to your dear eye as well!

A L O H A! Cloudia